President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is rallying favor to his fellow Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders to craft a new code of conduct to address territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Marcos cited the "slow-moving" negotiations on the proposed COC between the ASEAN countries and China amid in the increasing tension in the West Philippine Sea.

"We are now in the midst of negotiating our own code of conduct, for example, with Vietnam because we are still waiting for the code of conduct between China and ASEAN and the progress has been rather slow unfortunately," Marcos said during the Daniel Inouye Speaker Series at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, Hawaii on Monday (Manila time).

"And so we've taken the initiative to approach those other countries around ASEAN with whom we have existing territorial conflicts," he added.

Marcos said he is trying to convince Vietnam and Malaysia to come up with another sea code to maintain peace in the SCS.

The President hopes that this move would "grow further into the other ASEAN countries and at the very least, we have that basis, not only in the multilateral sphere as in ASEAN or Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation."

"All of these other organizations but also bilaterally with the different countries around ASEAN whom we have conflicts with, but with whom, I think, we can find a way to maintain the status quo," he stressed.

Marcos has been rallying for complete negotiations for the binding COC in SCS.

This as China, the Philippines, and several other littoral states have overlapping claims in the contested waters off SCS.

The Philippines has been enduring China's assertiveness in SCS—of which 80 percent of Beijing's extensive claims overlap Manila's sovereign rights in the WPS.

China has been ignoring the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling on 12 July 2016 favoring the Philippines' sovereignty in the portion of SCS.

In the meantime, Marcos said the Philippines would continue to strengthen its partnership with the United States, the country's only treaty partner, as well as with other like-minded nations and allies.

"But starting with that, we also feel that, the way forward is to strengthen our partnerships with all our neighbors," he pointed out.

Marcos said the Philippines is keen to work with "all friendly nations that]share our ideals, aspirations, values and the respect for the rule of international law."

"And this has been something that we have tried to develop and we have, I believe, had some measure of success and we will continue to do this. But again, the bedrock of any of these partnerships is the partnership and treaty arrangement that we have, the Mutual Defense Treaty that we have with the United States," he added.

He further stressed that the US has always been behind the Philippines in terms of support, "not only in rhetoric but also in providing concrete support."
Marcos also feted similar support that the Philippines got from Australia, South Korea, and Japan after a series of China's harassment and aggressions in the WPS.

"Aside from support from its partners, the Philippines continues to increase its capabilities to be able to answer the challenges that it is facing, especially as China's island-building efforts edge closer to Philippine shores, with its more confrontational stance," Marcos said.

"Now it's becoming more and more often. Every so often, there is a confrontation between outside forces and Philippine forces," he added.